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I’d eased off a bit on the Harlequin edits for Coming Attractions due to various medical
issues, but I’m going to concentrate and get back on the editing horse while
everyone else is busy with NaNoWriMo.

It helps that we are, in a word,
broke. Nothing says “Go work on your career!” like trying to figure out how to
pay the bills.

The cardiologist, as expected, does not think my chest pains were related to my heart, so it all checks out. As a precaution (there's a family history of heart attacks) they're scheduling me for a CT heart scan to search for plaque, which I tried to explain to them was on my teeth. Jeez, I thought they were experts.

In my adult
years I’ve never been a fan of Halloween, especially now that I’m not supposed
to be eating candy anymore. I mean, what’s the point?

It pained
me to see store shelves stocked with Halloween products in August, a time when
werewolves and mummies would be dropping of heat exhaustion. They replaced back
to school products, which hit the shelves around the time school let out
earlier in the summer. Those products often have to fight for space beside
Christmas displays.

In the
defense of businesses, they have to get some of that merchandise sold off by
November, so they have room for Valentine’s Day stuff.

January and
March are only there to give the merchants some breathing room.

But my
biggest problem with Halloween is the timing. It’s the middle of autumn, the
days are getting colder, the trees have shed their leaves, and winter’s ready
to have at me with both icy barrels. What’s to celebrate? National Frostbite
Month?

Researchers
say 43% of adults who have Seasonal Affective Disorder, as I do, had that form
of depression in childhood. In other words, I wasn’t just a miserable kid
because I was a miserable kid, although I’m sure I was that, too. That means
that as a child I probably approached October 31st with the attitude
of my two media heroes, Eeyore the donkey and Grumpy Cat. If anybody cares.
Which I doubt.

That
explains why my main goals when it came to Halloween, then and now, was to find
the warmest costume available, and to eat enough candy to put on a good coat of
insulation.

My earliest
Halloween memory was dressing as a little devil. I was covered head to foot in
red felt, had a forked tail, and carried a wicked looking pitchfork. I looked a
lot like an IRS agent.

That must
have been an unusually warm fall, because I remember actually being a visible
devil. Usually in northeast Indiana you could only see that part of the costume
between the bottom of our winter coats and the top of our rubber boots.

Many years
later, as a teenager, my friends and I talked each other into going trick or
treating dressed as women. I saw the benefits immediately, and went as a
“frumpy” woman. In other words, I wore layers of clothes and stuffed the front
of my chest with insulating material, then put on a huge wig and a princess
mask. Every part of me was protected from the elements except my hands, which
had to be free to collect treats.

Once I was
too old for the treats part I pretty much lost interest in Halloween until I
had kids of my own, and began looking for ways to dress them warmly and
cheaply. Turns out they weren’t as bothered by the weather as I was, and were
more willing to do crazy things like decorate, and go outside, and care. Just
the same, I think the Giant Box of Popcorn outfit was a work of pure insulation
genius.

Now I’ve
come up with a list of ideas that can meet my goal of warmth while also being
an actual costume:

Werewolf. We have a dog who resembles a
wolf, so Emily suggested we all three dress that way. I accepted the idea
immediately, because it meets the goal of being completely covered.

Polar Bear. Any bear will do, as long as
there’s fur.

Dumbledore. He’s a Harry Potter wizard, best known for long robes, big hat, and
flowing beard. I could wear ten or twelve layers under that. According to J.K.
Rowling he’s also gay, which means I could also cover myself with a rainbow
blanket.

Firefighter. Easy-peasy … I already have
the outfit. Ironically, while it does a great job protecting from heat, it also
holds heat in very well. Sometimes too well.

Eskimo. I don’t think that’s the PC name
for them anymore, but the important part is that you get to dress like someone
who’s dressing warm. Just stay away from the people costumed as polar bears.

The costume
I’ve always wanted to try, but haven’t because it’s not warm enough:
politician. I know what you’re thinking: A liar like that? His pants have got to be hot. But really, I just wanted
to add one really scary costume to the mix. I figure I’d dress up like Joe
Biden, act out of touch, take half of your candy, and spy on your house.

It
probably won’t scare the kids too much … but the adults will be terrified.+

I probably won't be online much tomorrow, as I have an appointment to see a cardiologist. Nothing to worry about: I had some chest pains a few weeks ago, but they're fairly sure it was associated with an infection. My EKG said I was "borderline abnormal" -- as if we didn't already know that -- so they want me to see a heart specialist as a precaution, because I can't pay them anymore if I die.

It might
surprise people to learn I don’t blame the Executive Branch for the government
shutdown. I blame Congress … but maybe not for the reason you think.

The whole
thing started in the House of Representatives, where Republicans were trying to
stop the Godzilla-sized mess known as Obamacare. It’s shocking – just shocking
– that a party supposedly dedicated to smaller government would want to halt
one of the biggest federal power grabs in history.

(Although it may never have
happened if Congress had addressed real problems in the health care and
insurance industries.)

The House
did indeed pass a stopgap continuing resolution, but that resolution didn’t
fund Obamacare, making it a certainty that it wouldn’t go anywhere. That led to
the first official shutdown since 1996, although the question is open whether Washington
D.C. has been in a state of shutdown for a long time now.

I know what
you’re thinking: If it’s all about Obamacare, couldn’t the Congress have passed
a spending bill that covers everything else, not fund or defund the Affordable Care Act, get things running
again, then come back to tackle Obamacare later? Hey, there’s an idea.

But that’s
not why I blame Congress. (By the way, members of Congress earned over
$1,800,000 in the first seven days of the shutdown, while 800,000 federal
workers went without pay. I figure President Obama pulled in about $7,690 that
week, but my math is notoriously weak.)

Here’s the
problem: The Senate has failed to pass a budget – any budget – in over three
years. House Republicans did indeed pass budgets in the last three years, but
the Senate didn’t follow up. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid didn’t even
allow any spending bills to go up for a vote, so for all intents the people we
sent to represent us – didn’t.

If they had
produced a budget years ago, and if the President has signed it, then all this
madness never would have happened in the first place. We wouldn’t have the
government spending more money to
barricade memorials than if they’d just left them alone; we wouldn’t have the
idiocy of spending money on hundreds of traffic cones just to keep people from
stopping along the road to see Mount Rushmore. We wouldn’t have the government
trying to shut down Mount Vernon, which doesn’t even get federal funds.

The Feds
acted out of a spite not seen since the departing Clinton people vandalized the
White House – maybe not even since Nixon vandalized the Presidency.

It’s not
all their fault, of course, and it’s not all over Obamacare. In fact, arguing
over the health care law is pointless – Obamacare is illegal. The Supreme Court
jumped through hoops to try and say otherwise, finally rationalizing that the
law is a tax. However, the Constitution is very clear that certain bills –
stuff that raises your taxes – must originate in the House of Representatives.
Obamacare originated in the Senate, so the moment the Supreme Court declared it
a tax, it became illegal.

It’s also a
mess, but that’s another story. The problems with Obamacare could fill four or
five more columns.

(Pundits
claim the lawmakers got around this by inserting the Obamacare language into a
bill that had already passed the House – a bill that had to do with tax breaks
for military homeowners. A shell bill in a shell game, also called fraud … I
hope they’re very proud.)

In other
words, the Republicans – no paragons of virtue themselves – did the right thing
by standing their ground against an illegal and unaffordable law.
Unfortunately, they did not do the right thing by letting the government shut
down, although as I said earlier it should never have come to that. The Feds –
blame whoever you want, but the tactic clearly aided the President – inflicted
as much pain as they possibly could in as many public areas as possible, while
their definition of “non-essential” was seriously warped.

Meanwhile,
by some estimates the shutdown cost more
money than if the government kept going … another sure sign that the system is
broken, as if there haven’t been enough. All to spend money we don’t have, and
defend a law that’s indefensible.

Speaking of
indefensible, we then faced still another increase on the debt limit. The dire
warning: If we don’t pass it the government might default on its debts.

So? It’s
going to default on its debts, anyway. The President and a compliant Congress
continue to spend, because they can just print more money that doesn’t really
exist. I can print money. Think the Chinese will take that? It can’t continue.
I don’t mean that as a protest, but as a prediction: Sooner or later America
will go broke (really, we are right now), and it’s just a matter of how much
worse Washington can make things before it happens.

The House
passed a budget bill that funded the entire federal government except for
Obamacare. The other side of Congress, controlled by Democrats, refused to come
up with their own bill, and thus the government shut down. Both sides refused to compromise, except to push the whole thing a
few months further down the road. The Democrats are happy as can be right now,
because they managed to refuse compromise while getting the Republicans blamed
for their refusal. Believe me, there are other things to blame the Republicans
for.

Since
our elected officials have turned into do-nothings – essentially, non-essential
– why were they not furloughed? Stop saying your own guy is okay, and throw all
the bums out.

Emily has fixed up the website again: There's still a little
work to be done, but it's worth checking out www.markrhunter.com just
to see her extra-cute photo of our dog, Bae. It also has something we've been
meaning to put up there for some time: On the Book page, there's a way to order
signed copies of my Albion fire history book, Smoky Days and Sleepless
Nights, and get it shipped to you, just like the other books. Check it all
out, and let us know what you think!